Michael Lawler and Kathy Jackson heading into the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, in Sydney on Thursday, June 19, 2014. Picture: AAP Image/Jane DempsterSource:AAP

JUST a few years ago Michael Lawler and Kathy Jackson were riding high, travelling the world as a glamorous power couple and enjoying a combined yearly income of more than $700,000.

But their lavish lifestyle of overseas trips, expensive cars, luxury clothes and fine dining seems well and truly at an end after Mr Lawler officially resigned from his position at the Fair Work Commission this week, a sad ending to a once prestigious career.

Prospects for Mr Lawler and his partner Ms Jackson, who defrauded the Health Services Union of about $1.4 million, could not be lower.

But it’s not just the audacious fraud that has made this couple infamous, they seem to be a magnet for bizarre headlines.

The latest twist came just a day before Mr Lawler delivered his resignation.

News that a 40-year-old man (apparently a dinner guest) was found dead in their Wombarra home on Wednesday is just the latest drama to embroil the couple. While police say the man is believed to have died as a result of a medical episode and his death is not being treated as suspicious, the couple can’t seem to escape intrigue.

Here’s all you need to know about the fall from grace of a once formidable pairing.

POWER COUPLE

According to Ms Jackson, this month the couple will celebrate the beginning of their romantic relationship, eight years ago in 2008. It may well have marked the beginning of the end.

After the two started dating, they enjoyed a beautiful and exciting life together, going on frequent overseas trips. But at least 34 of these were paid for illegally using union funds, costing about $175,000 over eight years.

That’s not all. Ms Jackson also dined out at restaurants, bought luxury goods, jewellery, a new car and even artworks — all on the union’s tab.

The couple’s love of travel and intimate dinners was captured in home videos. Source: ABCSource:Supplied

By the time the purchases were exposed in a civil case in the Federal Court last year, more than $1.4 million had been spent illegally.

In 2012, at the time Ms Jackson was stealing thousands from the union, she was being paid $287,000 as the Health Services Union’s East branch executive president.

Mr Lawler’s salary as vice-president of the Fair Work Commission, one of the country’s most powerful roles, was $435,000 — more than what Federal Court judges are paid.

The 55-year-old told ABC’s Four Corners program last year that he did not know he had benefited from stolen funds.

“It turns out that I have been the beneficiary of, um, airfares and a small amount of accommodation that was paid for by the union. I didn’t know that at the time,” he said.

UNION PIN-UP GIRL

Ms Jackson’s $1.4 million fraud was a stunning turnaround for the woman who was praised for blowing the whistle on union corruption.

Her decision to ask for an external audit of union books after noticing irregularities, led to former federal MP Craig Thomson, who misused his credit cards to pay for prostitutes and other expenses totalling $24,538, being fined $25,000.

Former MP Craig Thompson was sentenced to a year in jail.Source:News Limited

Former union official Michael Williamson was also convicted of fraud totalling nearly $1 million.

For her role in exposing them, Ms Jackson was described as “heroic”, “brave” and “decent” by then prime minister Tony Abbott.

Mr Lawler told the ABC that Ms Jackson blew the whistle because he encouraged her to.

“I urged her and encouraged her to do so and reminded her that it was her duty to do so.”

But ever since Ms Jackson’s own extravagant spending was exposed, she has seen her legacy crumble. Last year she declared bankruptcy, ahead of a Federal Court judgment that she repay the stolen money.

“What’s been done to my beloved is just evil,” Mr Lawler told ABC.

“She’s a thoroughly decent, kind, generous person. She has been totally destroyed. Her career has been totally destroyed. She has no income. She has no prospect of getting a job or income. She’s suffering from a very deep depression, um, and, ah, there’s no colour in her life.”

But this week Mr Lawler had his own problems to deal with.

On Thursday he resigned from his job as vice-president as the scandal surrounding Ms Jackson’s union spending also took him down.

MORE THAN 200 DAYS OF SICK LEAVE

On Friday Mr Lawler was due to respond to an investigation over whether he was entitled to take nine months of sick leave in one year. His leave was investigated after The Australian revealed last year that he was actually using his spare time to work on Ms Jackson’s court case, while getting paid his full $435,000 salary.

Commission president Iain Ross told a Senate committee last year he had approved more than 200 days of sick leave for Mr Lawler but did not know he spent that time supporting his partner.

Michael Lawler took nine months paid sick leave but used the time to work on his partner Kathy’s legal case. Picture: ABC.Source:News Corp Australia

“In fact, I would have thought most Australians would regard that as an honourable and decent thing to do,” he said.

But Employment Minister Michaelia Cash did not agree and asked former judge Peter Heerey to look into the leave. Mr Heerey delivered his report to the minister in February and she gave Mr Lawler until March 4 to respond. A day before the deadline, Mr Lawler resigned.

According to Fairfax the report into his conduct may never be publicly released.

WAS HE C**T-STRUCK?

Mr Lawler ensured that his Four Corners interview would become infamous after he provided the program with footage of a five-hour long monologue he recorded of himself and played secretly recorded conversations he had with commission president Iain Ross. One of the most startling moments came when he bluntly suggested he would be characterised as a crook or scumbag, or at the very best someone who had been “bewitched” and “c**t-struck” by Ms Jackson.

“Have you been?” interviewer Caro Meldrum-Hanna asked.

“No. No,” was Mr Lawler’s reply.

Mr Lawler suggests that the couple were victims of a conspiracy and smear campaign against them, led by influential Labor Party figures and corrupt union officials.

“It is a thing that is concerned with the way in which power is acquired and maintained within unions and acquired and maintained within the ALP,” he said.

IT’S NOT OVER

The worst may not yet be past them with the couple’s finances under investigation by Taskforce Heracles, which may still bring criminal charges against them.

Last year the taskforce, made up of Victoria, NSW and Australian Federal Police, raided their Wombarra home just north of Wollongong.

In yet another twist, a legal battle also looms over their association with barrister David Rofe, a Queen’s Counsel, who has dementia but who has reportedly written Ms Jackson into his will, worth about $3 million, despite only meeting her about two years ago.

With Ms Jackson now a bankrupt, they will likely need the funds. Mr Lawler may also look to claim his $250,000-a-year taxpayer-funded pension, a decision that rests in the hands of Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.

What’s almost certain is, their once envious lifestyle is now well and truly behind them.